Netsmart now the only provider to offer practice management and clinical software solutions for all sizes and types of mental health care providers.

Great River, NY - Netsmart Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise-wide software and services for health and human services organizations, today announced it acquired the Therapist Helper product suite and operations from Nightingale VantageMed Corporation, a subsidiary of Nightingale Informatix Corporation (TSX-V: NGH), a Markham, Ontario-based provider of electronic medical record (EMR) software and related services. Therapist Helper offices and staff, located in Woburn, Mass., will remain in place after the completion of the acquisition.

KLAS award-winning Therapist Helper software is a practice management and clinical system for individual and small group private practice psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, therapists and social workers. The acquisition brings the more than 17,000 customers that have purchased Therapist Helper into the Netsmart customer family, further expanding the number of providers that use Netsmart software and creating a greater opportunity to share clinical information among all points of care to achieve true Connected Care.

"We're pleased to now be the technology partner to the entire mental healthcare spectrum, from individual private practice and small group providers to community mental health centers and counties to comprehensive state systems," said James L. Conway, chief executive officer, Netsmart Technologies. "Therapist Helper has a long tradition of providing high quality support for its thousands of customers. We are fully committed to continuing that high level of customer support as we welcome them into the Netsmart family."

The acquisition of Therapist Helper by Netsmart Technologies benefits both current Netsmart customers and Therapist Helper customers.

Netsmart will be able to offer its customers the SecureConnect electronic data interchange (EDI) service for easy and secure electronic exchange of claims and receipt of electronic remittances. With SecureConnect, Netsmart's Avatar and CMHC/MIS customers can do easy editing of claims, take advantage of more enhanced reporting capabilities, and use a single service to process both Medicaid and private payer claims. SecureConnect's on-demand service will be demonstrated to Netsmart customers at CONNECTIONS2008, the company's annual customer conference April 14-17 in Orlando.

Therapist Helper customers will have access to Netsmart's strong selection of complementary solutions. With the national movement towards electronic prescribing well underway, Therapist Helper customers will be able to use Netsmart's InfoScriber e-prescribing solution to reduce medication errors and improve prescribing efficiencies. In addition, psychiatrists, psychologists, clinicians and social workers with limited time for education courses can utilize Netsmart University to take online clinical and office management courses at times convenient for them.

"Therapist Helper customers will now have added benefits of being a part of an expanded behavioral healthcare community, with access to complementary products and a wealth of shared peer knowledge among the immense number of users," said Sam Chebib, president and CEO of Nightingale.

In addition to providing an additional level of behavioral health expertise for future development of Therapist Helper, Netsmart will facilitate establishment of a Therapist Helper user group and other networking and knowledge sharing opportunities among the Therapist Helper user community and the broader Netsmart community.